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Archive for May, 2015

Ramai

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

Pradnya Jadhav

ramai

It has been ages we since we have spoken

Perhaps, I never felt the need to converse with you, because I would see you around forever

But today, while seeing your picture, I realized your quietness; I realized it could not mean you are calm..

Ramai,

Let us speak today, I might say a few words, I might ask you a few questions..

I don’t know if you will answer those or respond to me, may I request you to listen to me?

Ramai,

I have always seen you as a very kind person, very patient, extremely tolerant

Through all those writings about you, you were constantly portrayed that way…

We admire you for your loving and caring nature,

for all the hardship you had to carry throughout your life,

for being a supportive partner of Babasaheb and for all the sacrifices you made..

But Ramai-

Was this journey easy for you?

Were you so extremely patient and forbearing that you never complained?

Ramai,

You were a thinking being; didn’t you ever say a word about your pain?

I am amazed and would like to understand how it would have been for you?

I’m sure you must have definitely talked to at least yourself, to someone close to you,

you must have become agitated..

But regrettably your words, your voice never reached us Ramai,

Because way before we had learned about your nature, about your feelings, about your sorrows and thinking

Perhaps, we had naturalized your hardships…

Ramai..

I can only salute you for being whatever you were!

~

 

Ramabai (1896-1935) was the daughter of Bhiku Dhutre. Ramabai was married to Bhimrao Ambedkar in 1906.

Today, 27th May, is the death anniversary of Ramabai Ambedkar

Sona: Mother of Ten

Sunday, May 10th, 2015

Translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 

 

Ten children I bore

from this physical heap.

Then weak from that, aged,

I went to a nun.

She taught me the Dhamma:

aggregates, sense spheres, & elements.

Hearing her Dhamma,

I cut off my hair & ordained.

Having purified the divine eye

while still a probationer,

I know my previous lives,

where I lived in the past.

I develop the theme-less meditation,

well-focused oneness.

I gain the liberation of immediacy —

from lack of clinging, unbound.

The five aggregates, comprehended,

stand like a tree with its root cut through.

I spit on old age.

There is now no further becoming.

~

Sona: Mother of Ten (Thig 5.8), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhiku. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November, 2013, http://www.accesstonsight.org/tipitaka/thig/thig.05.08.than.html 

Source: The Therigatha, Verses of the Elder Nuns. The Therigatha, the ninth book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, consists of 73 poems — 522 stanzas in all — in which the early nuns (bhikkunis) recount their struggles and accomplishments along the road to arahantship. Their stories are told with often heart-breaking honesty and beauty, revealing the deeply human side of these extraordinary women, and thus serve as inspiring reminders of our own potential to follow in their footsteps.

 

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